I’m thinking of a recent Wednesday, when I bought a particularly ripe purplish one at our local Greenmarket, ripe enough that by the time it had sat around in my office all day and then made the perilous trip home it had cracked and begun to bleed, or ooze, or whatever carelessly handled ripe tomatoes do.

It needed to be used right away, obviously, and there was no immediate place for it in our lives. For reasons uninteresting to anyone but my wife, Jackie, and me, the dining program that night was centered on meatloaf. Or rather, it was meatloaf. I could have pureed the tomato and added it to the pork and beef mixture before baking, but it deserved better than that. So, instead of bothering to make even the simplest of gravies, I diced the wounded tomato, skin and seeds included, scooped it into a bowl, generously salted and peppered it and splashed it with olive oil – no lemon, no vinegar, no herbs: this was not to be a so-called tomato vinaigrette.

What it was to be was just seasoned chopped tomatoes, and I can tell you that spooned, juice and all, over thick slabs of tepid meatloaf (why would anyone eat it hot?) it was delicious and evocative. Evocative, oddly, of something I ate maybe two decades ago in a Greenwich Village restaurant: a breaded veal cutlet topped with similar, though less finely diced, tomatoes. This is not an uncommon thing, but to me it sounded at the time like a lousy idea (it would be bland; it would make the crust soggy), but … well, the fact that I think of it to this day must mean that somebody there had something on the ball.

So if you manhandle a tomato or two (or are fortunate enough to have a genuine overabundance), think of that affinity. As a partner for meat, tomatoes will never replace potatoes, but when they’re as good as they can be at this time of year they certainly hold their own.

as a minimalist, could you please make a video about cooking lava cake in a microwave (that 5-minute-cake)? I’m a bit disaster in baking and i tried to follow online recipes but none really worked. they all became regular choco cake..thanks!

What a coincidence…last weekend I prepared a large bowl of fresh green beans with roasted red & yellow peppers &, onions, mixed with grilled link italian sausage cut in chunks. I made way too much and have been munching on this all week. Last night the remains were down to a few chunks of sausage & a half handful of stray beans…not quite enough for a full plate. I added half of a leftover tomato: diced, & it perked up the remainder of the leftovers and supplied some much need liquid that I sponged up with a piece of a leftover batard.

While our tomatoes here in Oregon haven’t been devastated by blight like those in the Northeast, I have had lots of bottom-end rot in my early tomatoes (my own fault for watering too assiduously). This means that though the bottoms are completely awful, trimming away the icky bits leaves at least half the tomato usable, but not really presentable by itself. I’ve solved the problem with Basque piperade, a sauté of peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic that is one-dish dining at its best.

“I diced the wounded tomato, skin and seeds included, scooped it into a bowl, generously salted and peppered it and splashed it with olive oil – no lemon, no vinegar, no herbs: this was not to be a so-called tomato vinaigrette.”

I was lucky enough to have spotted (no pun intended) the fungus on my tomatoes early. I found a treatment ok’d for organic gardens and kept the blight at bay long enough for my tomatoes to ripen. The neighbors are very happy.

Twenty years ago I discovered a recipe from Marion Burros that calls for a seranno pepper, a bunch of cilantro, tomatoes processed til chunky, then add some olive oil and red wine vinegar. This goes on hot linguini then sprinkled with parmesean (sp?) cheese (generously.)

With loads of tomatoes I make this constantly and it goes on eggs, chips and I’ve even eaten it as a gazpacho. It would be great on meatloaf! Each year I so look forward to my own tomatoes starring in this simple and versatile sauce.